The Battle of Chandleridge

The legionnaires sprinted down the hill straight towards the ponies.  As the humans closed the distance some of the ponies turned around and began to run away in fear.  Others gripped tightly onto their weapons, hoping for a miracle.  Queen Clover instead readied herself by charging up a blast of magic.

The humans, oblivious to the glowing on Clover’s horn, continued the charge to the ponies quickly closing the distance.

Clover then released a full beam of clover shaded magic at the line of troops.  The legionnaires quickly stopped their dash and brought up their shields to absorb the blast.  The beam slammed against their shields, shoving the troopers back.  The troopers held their ground shoving against the blast of magic, drawing lines in the ground with their feet from being pushed back.  Clover continued pouring more energy into the blast shoving the troops back even more.  Some of the human’s troops in the center of the line, absorbing the majority of the blast, started to feel their shields cracking from the power.  Clover was encouraged by the cracking and other unicorns began to contribute to the blast, helping their queen.

Gregorios widened his eyes in surprise at the use of magic against his century.  He traced the beams of magic back to find the queen as the true source of their power.  He instantly wielded his pila and quickly aimed at the queen.  It would have to travel over twenty meters to reach its target and Gregorios lobbed the pila as hard as his body would allow.

The pila cut its way through the air traveling at an alarming rate.  The pila then began its quick descent towards the queen as she remained focused on directing the flow of magic, not noticing the pila heading towards her.  The pile came to a stop piercing straight into Clover’s front-right foreleg.

Clover let out a cry of pain, interrupting her focus on the beam of magic and causing the spell to abruptly stop, burning the horns of all the unicorns in sync with the spell.  The unicorns all fell down in pain along with their queen and tried to recuperate.

“My Queen!”  Two pegasi soldiers yelled as they immediately dived down to assist her.  The two troops then helped her back to the rear of the formation as some of the ponies dropped back to protect their queen.

The humans quickly reset their formation and resumed their charge to the ponies.

The legionnaires slammed into the ponies using their shields and size to crush the ponies, wiping out the first line of them almost instantly.

The pegasi up above then hurled back behind the line of human troops and began to harass their exposed backs with arrows.  The arrows weren’t piercing the armor, but they were able to cause bruising underneath.

Gregorios prepared another pila and then threw it in the direction of the pegasi.  The pila pierced straight through the sternum of a pegasus.  The pony instantly dropped onto the ground letting out a scream of pain.

The other pegasi glanced at their fallen comrade only to find another pila cut through the air and pierce the wing of another pegasus, knocking him to the ground as well.

The pegasi looked back to find Gregorios ready to lob another pila.  The pegasi immediately flee upon the sight of the human, flying back to the city instead of staying in the fight.

The brutal melee continues with humans stabbing down upon the ponies, quickly executing them, and ponies pulling humans out of formation and quickly ganging up on them, knocking them down and pounding upon their heads with their hooves.  The humans at the most either received concussions or broken bones, their armor protected them through the beatings, and the ponies on the other hand, were being easily slashed through by the gladuis of each human.

The battle looked extremely lopsided without the pegasi support and with the unicorns still recovering from the fruitless magic skirmish.

Queen Clover rose back up onto her hooves to find her troops being slaughtered in a terrifyingly efficient pattern of blocking and slashing or jabbing from the short swords of the humans.

Clover is still rocked from the exchange of magic and begins to lose her balance while standing.  She shakes her head about in order to keep herself up in the fight, but she instead began to feel dizziness in her mind.  She began to hear the screams of the unicorns as they were easily overtaken by the humans in the carnage.  The Earth ponies could only put up a small fight before being torn apart by the heavy human infantry.  The pegasi support was nowhere to be found except for her two guards that remained.  Clover continued to gather her strength on the ground as the humans continued cutting through the ponies.

By now the humans have adjusted to the ponies’ scheme of scattered formation and have locked themselves in a shield wall to make sure none of them get singled out.

Gregorios now joined his legionnaires by taking the position in the center and having the second line of his century come to reinforce the rear.

Now with the inspiration from their centurion the legionnaires pushed forward even faster, systematically blocking and slicing at the ponies.  As the ponies continued taking casualties, more of them began to route from the battle.  Soon the only remaining resistance was the Queen and her own two pegasi guards.

The humans quickly encircled them readying their shields and swords for any final surprises.

Queen Clover slowly rose up and looked about to find her entire garrison wiped out.  She then looked over to find Gregorios casually walking towards her in the circle of legionnaires.

Gregorios stopped when the pegasi guards readied their spears at him.

The chuckle of the centurion frightened the three surviving ponies.  He even laid his sword and shield down onto the ground.

“It seems that you have lost today.”  He explained in a kind tone.

No response came from the ponies as they remained in their desperate positions.

“Now, if you admit defeat and surrender your city, I assure you the benefits for your country will be great.”  He coined a smile at the end of the offer as he removed his helmet.

Clover looked down in thought before replying.  “What ‘benefits’ would we be receiving?”  She asks, hiding the fear in her voice.

Gregorios’ smile grew even greater now that she has accepted the possibility of defeat.  “Well…”  He clasped his hands together.  “You become folded into our empire.  You will use our currency; our emperor will be able to rule without resistance from you, your people will be treated fairly, and you won’t have to make any of those important decisions anymore.  Though I will tell you this, you will help us to take the rest of your people so they take the same route as you.  All of this if you just admit your defeat and bow before our glorious emperor.”

Clover could read Gregorios’ offer easily, the rhetoric he used made it sound like the ponies were getting the good side of the deal.

“No.”  Clover simply states in reply.  “We will not admit defeat.”  She quickly stood up to her full height.  “We will not bow to your emperor either!”

The smile faded from the centurion who then sighed before picking his shield and sword back up.

“Then we’ll do this the hard way.”  He then began to walk towards the princess, readying his sword for attack.

The pegasi guards quickly dashed at Gregorios who simply raised his shield to block their spears.  The pegasi were knocked back from the force and he then began to make his move.  He thrusts his sword into the long neck of one of them, quickly ripping the sword back out as the pegasus hits the ground squirming about.  He then shoulder-charged forward, leading with his shield right into the other guard, knocking him down onto the ground with a crack sounding from the impact.  Gregorios then approached the pegasus on the ground and thrust his sword straight into the left wing on the equine.  The pegasus screamed in reply and Gregorios remained holding the sword, turning his head to look into Clover’s eyes.

“Submit.”  He states calmly as the pegasus continues squirming and groaning in pain.

Clover looked down at her guard and then reverted back at the human.  “No.”

Gregorios twisted the sword in the guard’s wing, creating a sickening sound of flesh straining about with the feathers.

“He doesn’t have long Clover.  Leaving here with one life is better than none.”

“No.”

Another scream sounds as Gregorios stabs his sword in the right wing of the pegasus.  Another shout of pain rings through the guard as he tries to keep his breaths steady.

“All I’m asking for is a simple ‘yes’ Clover.”

Clover looked down at the guards face to find him with tears of pain streaming from his eyes.  The Queen’s expression softened as she felt nothing but utter pity for the guard.  She then checked back at the centurion.

“No.”  Her voice lost most of its authority.

Gregorios smiled, seeing that he was close to breaking her.  Now, he twisted the sword about in the wing, releasing a significantly weaker scream from the guard as the blood soon encircled him on the ground.

Clover then looked down into the eyes of the guard and mouthed the words ‘I’m sorry’ to him.  Small tears brimmed upon her eyes as she struggled to say the word.

“No.”  Her voice failed her, sounding weak and faltered in tone.

Gregorios then looked between the guard and Queen.  To him this began to feel wrong, his duty was to get them to submit no matter what, but this was simply inhumane.  He knew there was no turning back now and he must complete the work of the emperor.  He immediately ripped the sword out of the guard’s wing and quickly stabbed into his torso, ending his suffering.

“You face against odds that wouldn’t favor you in any conditions, yet you cling on to your cause.  That is... something rather human.”  He pulled the sword out and rose up.

“Admirable trait, but here it is deplorable.”  He stepped towards the queen, raising his sword to strike…

In a flash of green, blinding all of the humans, Clover teleported to another location, evading her end.

The centurion recovered to find the alicorn gone.  He shook his head in disbelief, unknowing of the spell just cast.

“Nuntiare debemus imperator.”  Gregorios states to his troops as they recover.  “Nunc celebramus uictoria!”

“Victoria!”  The century shouts in reply, followed by cheers for the victory.

The victory in Chandleridge marks a turning point in not only Equestria, but the entire world.  Every decision made after this point, will matter greatly to all who live in this ancient world.

And they were only getting started…